Tool Assisted Speedruns

Date

April 23, 2010

Speaker

Ben Jones

Abstract

My first experience with Tool Assisted Speedruns was in 2003 or so, when my friend showed me a video of “a really awesome guy beating Mario 3 in like 10 minutes” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40DRf9tCHtQ&feature=related). I watched it, was amazed, but was skeptical that anyone was THAT good at Nintendo. So I checked it out, and I figured out how he did it. I found that there’s a whole community of TASers (tasvideos.org) that are not testing their limits as gamers, they’re stretching the games themselves to their very limit. I’ll give you the lowdown on TASing, give away a few of their secrets, and show you how you can make your very own TAS of that Super Nintendo game you’ve loved for 15 years (I know you’ve got one). If that’s not enough incentive to come, I’ll be showing some videos of Mario having seizures.